Endnotes

  1. Evje signifies a stream with a slow current. ↩

  2. Norwegian peasants bear the same name as their estates. As there are no nobles in Norway, the farmers or owners of estates occupy a much higher social position than in Germany. ↩

  3. The Skydo-Bauern along the principal roads supply travellers with beds and food. ↩

  4. A district in northern Norway. ↩

  5. A boat with three oars on each side. ↩

  6. A long pole, with a hooked iron spike at the end of it, for spearing Kvejte or hallibut with. ↩

  7. A large boat with five oars on each side, used for winter fishing in northern Norway. ↩

  8. The chief port in those parts. ↩

  9. Hin Karen = “the devil.” “Karen” is the Danish “Karl.” ↩

  10. The Klör, or clews, were rings in the corner of the sail to fasten it down by in a strong wind. Setja ei Klo = “take in the sail a clew.” Setja tvo, or tri Klör = “take it in two or three clews,” I.e., diminish it still further as the wind grew stronger. ↩

  11. A demon peculiar to the north Norwegian coast. It rides the seas in a half-boat. Compare Icelandic draugr. ↩

  12. See note 6. ↩

  13. Være med hu, Mor. Hu is the Danish Hun. ↩

  14. This untranslatable word is a derivative of the Icelandic Gandr, and means magic of the black or malefic sort. ↩

  15. The northernmost province of Norway, right within the Arctic circle. ↩

  16. The huts peculiar to the Norwegian Finns. ↩

  17. To sing songs (here magic songs), as the Finns do. Possibly derived from the Finnish verb joikun, which means monotonous chanting. ↩

  18. The Norse Kverva Syni is to delude the sight by magic spells. ↩

  19. I.e., the boat he (Jack) wanted to build. ↩

  20. A mountain between Sweden and Norway. ↩

  21. I.e., the boat he would be building. ↩

  22. Meaning that he would never have a chance of building the new sort of boat that his mind was bent on. ↩

  23. The Finn’s hut. ↩

  24. Tvinde Knuder. When the Finn tied one magic knot, he raised a gale, so two knots would give a tempest. ↩

  25. I.e., where the Gan-Finn let out the wind. ↩

  26. An eight-oared boat. ↩

  27. A place where seabirds’ eggs abound. ↩

  28. A contraction of Sexæring, i.e., a boat with six oars. ↩

  29. Eng. dialect word (the Norse is staur) meaning impediments of any kind. ↩

  30. Daudvatn (Dan. Dödvand), water in which there is no motion. ↩

  31. Lille Jule-aften, i.e., the day before Christmas Eve (Jule-aften). ↩

  32. A fishing-station, where fishermen assemble periodically. ↩

  33. I.e., at nothing⁠—a house having usually only four walls. ↩

  34. See “The Fisherman and the Draug.” ↩

  35. See “The Fisherman and the Draug.” ↩

  36. A small two-oared boat. ↩

  37. Hulder, huldre, a name for anything elfin or gnomish. Compare Icel. Hulda, a hiding, covering. It implies the invisibility of the elfin race. ↩

  38. Ligorm, serpent that eats the dead. If we have Lichfield and lichgate, we may have lichworm too. ↩

  39. A long slow dance, and the music to it. ↩

  40. A Sæter (Swed. säter) is a remote pasturage with huts upon it, where the cows are tended and dairy produce prepared for market and home use during the summer. ↩

  41. A country dance of a boisterous jig-like sort. ↩

  42. A long wooden trumpet. ↩

  43. A giantess, the wife of the mountain gnome, who rules in the Dovrefeld. ↩

  44. I.e., the general dealer’s wife. ↩

  45. Thin cakes that can be doubled in two and eaten with syrup. ↩

  46. Boxes containing provisions for voyages or journeys. ↩

  47. Flat cakes broken up with butter. ↩